Heartache
by K'ger
Summary: Aida is a girl who has been treated differently for almost all her life. And then there's the fact that she's in love with her boss, who doesn't reciprocate. But when he gets into a crash and can't be saved, it's up to Aida to face her past demons and save the one she loves. Can she learn to accept who she is? Or will she crack under pressure? LinkxOC. Three part mini-series.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: Ok, so this was originally going to be a oneshot, but it spread out of control, so this is going to be a three part mini-series. Warning, angsty-ness ensues.

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><p><strong>Heartache<strong>

**Part One.**

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><p><em>She had never thought that being different could hurt so much.<em>

_She had never thought that love could be so painful._

But here she sat, on a ratty second-hand couch, stroking her fluffy white cat Louise as she watched the rain pour down outside her house. Watching as the rain hit the glass windows and slipped down, creating strange, hypnotic patterns on the panes. She leaned back, resting her head on a red cloth pillow, her black hair messily wrapped in a towel to dry from the chores she had just finished. She was one of the three farmhands at Ordon Ranch, one of the most famous ranches in the country.

With her mind still stuck on what had happened during the nightly chores last week, she let loose a long, exasperated and depressed sigh, and closed her violet eyes, the eyes that made her different. People often avoided her when they caught a glimpse of her strikingly hued eyes, when they correlated the color to a not-so-welcome thought. In Hyrule, Violet eyes were considered sinful. Violet eyes meant that you were a Shifter.

Shifters were a small handful of the Hyrulean society that could change their shapes, some could take the forms of owls, or foxes, or bears. But most, and that included her, turned into wolves. And those who could turn into wolves were despised, for it was thought that once one changed their shape, their minds would fog, and only one thought would take over their consciousness. Hunt. Kill. Attack the helpless without mercy.

Why did the world hate her so? She had only taken her wolf form once, when she had, nothing had happened, she had been for a walk, she had transformed, and that was it. And yet they still preceded treat her like scum, kick her away like a stray dog and turn their backs on her.

For months after her mother, the only person ever to treat her like the human she was, had died, she had floundered around, going door to door, searching for some job, any job, just so she could pay for her meals. But day after day, month after month, she had been turned away with shouts and yells and slamming doors.

Then she had met _him._ Sitting in a coffee shop, sipping on a mocha latte with his golden hair falling in front of his eyes, completely unruly but beautiful all the same. When he had looked at her the first time, and their eyes had met, she had expected the normal reaction. Narrowing eyes, a harsh glare, perhaps even a rude word or two. But no, for the first time in her life, she opened her eyes after making contact and was met with a curious stare, not one of anger or disgust.

And so her life as a farmhand had begun. His name was Link, owner and proprietor of Ordon Ranch. For some reason, he never treated her like a shifter, he'd always listen when she talked, he trusted her with his livestock, and he'd laugh at any joke she made, even if it was completely lame, (which, most of them were.) He was her best friend, and to her mind, the only one for her. She loved him. But that was the problem, she loved him, but he didn't reciprocate. He was, truthfully, utterly oblivious to any kind of romance. Flirting went right over his head, and any subtle (or not so subtle) hints went in one pointed ear and out the other.

There was a loud knocking on her front door, startling her from the reverie. Tiredly, she pushed herself from the couch and walked over to the door and, with a sigh, opened the door. Soaking wet and flushed, panting heavily was a tall, lithe boy, with his brown hair cropped tightly to his head. His eyes were almost closed with exhaustion, but what she could see of them was filled with a terrified, consuming fear.

"Keet? What are you doing here? Its late." She said, clinging to the door and staring at him from under partially closed eyelids.

"Aida! Oh thank the gods you're here! There-there's been accident!" He said breathlessly, doubling over and gasping for air. She shifted around uncomfortably, what was he talking about? Accident? What did that mean? And what did it have to do with her?

"Keet, I don't understand. Accident? Who? Where?"

The boy looked up at her, his eyes somber and his lips pressed together so tightly that they went white.

"Aida, Link's been in a car accident."

She could feel the blood drain from her face, and she gripped the door so hard that her muscles ached and her fingernails dug forcefully into the wooden grain, leaving small indentions in their wake. Her knees felt weak, and she felt like she wanted to vomit, or to cry. She couldn't decide which…

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><p>Aida gripped the steering wheel of her truck, leaning toward the windshield to squint past the pouring rain. She fought the deep nausea that had settled itself in the pit of her stomach. As she drove, she couldn't stop her mind from going back to the last time she had seen Link, during the chores earlier that week.<p>

She had just finished stabling the horses for the night, and had headed out to the hay barn to collect the needed rations. The door had been left open, strange, it was always policy to close the door, or else unwanted pests could get in. As she had approached, she could hear voices, she had stopped for a moment, always cautious of going near other people, even her own co-workers. But the horses needed their hay, and she couldn't loiter around, so she had taken a breath and stepped in.

What she had seen had been burnt permanently into her mind, and upon seeing it, she swore she could feel her heart break. There were two people in the hay barn, a pretty blonde-haired girl with soft brown eyes, and Link. She had stopped short as the blonde girl had leaned upward and kissed Link right on the lips. And what had truly shattered her heart was that Link kissed her back. She knew the girl, her name was Peatrice, one of the other stable hands of Ordon Ranch.

"Oh my." She had gasped breathlessly, dipping her head and hurriedly striding over to the open hay bale and gathering the required flakes. She had grabbed the flakes and run, not daring to make another glance at Link. She had rushed through the rest of her chores, and then gotten in her truck and left without seeing him again. Ever since that night, she had avoided Link, swapping with one of her co-workers for a shift that was different from the times when Link was there.

She was snapped back to the grim reality by a stop sign being waved at her from about thirty yards away. She slowly hit the brakes, coming to a rolling stop in front of a thick police officer. The police officer came around the car as she rolled down the driver's side window.

"Hello, officer." She said, her voice sounded strange to her own ears, like it was disembodied. The officer came up to the window and shook his head.

"I'm sorry ma'am, the road's closed. A car went down into the ravine. Civilians aren't allowed on-site." He said in a deep, grumbling voice, almost like he didn't want to be there. Aida clenched the steering wheel more tightly and refused meet the man's eyes, not wanting to reveal that she was a Shifter.

"But sir, the man…he's my…boss." She said pleadingly, staring out past the blockade, watching as her headlights illuminated the individual droplets of rain as they fell.

"Ma'am, I'd like to help you, but the driver is unresponsive and the recovery team can't reach him. You need to go home." And with that, the officer turned to stride back over to his post. A little ways away from the blockade, Aida could see a brightly illuminated tent where a small crowd had gathered. It was obviously a place for members of the recovery team to rest, but several onlookers had gathered as well, she could recognize several of them as neighbors.

After backing up, Aida steered her truck over to the side of the road where a long line of other cars had been parked. She was immediately soaked to the bone as she stepped out of the truck and slammed the door, her rubber muck boots made strange squishing sounds as she walked quickly over to the tent and slipped into the crowd. She kept her eyes downcast, so that no one would catch a glimpse of their hue.

She nearly screamed when she felt a hand grab her shoulder, she whirled around, and accidentally met a pair of crimson eyes. She had met his eyes, and now the man had seen hers. He was tall, insanely tall, actually, with a sharp, angular face. He wore a tight blue t-shirt with the symbol of a red eye and teardrop on the front, with the words, "The Sheikah" on the front. He had a white ball-cap on top of his messy brown-blonde hair.

"Who-? Who are you?" She asked, looking toward the ground again, he was barefoot. He smirked and let go of her shoulder, and gave a small, annoying laugh as she took a few frightened steps away.

"I suppose you wouldn't remember me like this would you?"

Aida looked at his face closely, trying to see anything that distinguished him in her mind. The only thing that struck her as memorable was his eyes and their crimson hue. And then it hit her. She remembered him, or at least his eyes. She had been walking down the street, humming a happy little tune. It was her birthday, her twelfth birthday. And then the pain had come, a sudden, all-over sting. She had screamed as her vision went blurry, and then came into acute focus.

It had been her first shift. She had run, sprinting for her life until she had reached the Faron Woods and, too exhausted to go another step, had collapsed. When she opened her eyes again, she had been met with a pair of crimson orbs. The eyes had belonged to an unusually large fox, and that fox had kept her company until the shift reversed, and she went back to her human form. This man had the same eyes as that fox.

"You're the fox I met!"

This seemed to amuse the man, and he smirked at her as she swallowed unsurely. She stiffened with nerves as the man put a hand on her shoulder again and ushered her out of the tent and back into the pouring rain.

"Everyone calls me Sheik, and you're going to have shift if you want to save your boyfriend." His words were cold, and Aida's violet eyes widened as he lifted his chin to glare down at her.

"He's not my boyfriend, and I can't shift. I have no control over it."

Sheik started to laugh when she finished talking, a cruel expression on his face. She didn't know what to think, he knew her? How did he know about Link?

"Just think about the first time you shifted, what were you doing?"

She thought about this, it was so long ago, she had been twelve years old when she had shifted for the first and last time.

"I was on a walk."

"And after you shifted back to human form, how did people treat you? Like a monster? Like you were a piece of trash? How does that make you feel?" Sheik said in a condescending tone, looking into her violet eyes and making her feel like he was staring straight through her.

"Sad. And angry. Like I'm not worthwhile." She answered finally, and Sheik started laughing again. She looked up, and her nausea worsened as an all-too familiar feeling spread through her body. Dangit! Sheik had tricked her into transforming, anger and sadness were her triggers, which was why she avoided the feeling whenever she could.

She hated shifting. It hurt like hell, like her whole body was being ripped to pieces and slammed back together in the wrong way. There was a final excruciating flash of pain, and then it was over, she had shifted for the first time since she had been twelve. Aida looked skeptically down at her paws, showing the dark tawny hue of her coat and the wicked claws that clicked when she walked on hard surfaces.

_You're going to pay for this._ She growled, glowering up at Sheik with her eyes burning angrily. Sheik waved her off with a dismissive flick of his wrist.

"Better get going, wolfie, your boyfriend is waiting."

Aida padded a few feet away, before turning her head to snarl at him, her fangs glistening with a mixture of rain and saliva.

_And he's not my boyfriend!_ She hissed before breaking into a trot and entering the dense forest that rested on the edge of the ravine…


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Ok, second part is up now, sorry about the delay, life has been crazy lately. Watch out, there's some gore in this chapter.

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><p><strong>Heartache<strong>

**Part Two.**

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><p><em>She never thought this would happen.<em>

_She never thought she'd Shift on purpose._

_She never thought that she'd be sneaking past the police to save her secret crush who had gotten into a car crash and couldn't be saved. _

But here she was, her paws squishing in the soft mud that covered the ground. Her tawny coat already soaked after mere minutes of travel.

Why was she doing this? Because she, "loved" Link? He didn't love her back, so why should she care? Why should she put her neck on the line to save him? She shook her head softly, slinking behind several trees. She froze when a small sound came from ahead of her. Her ears pricked up, picking up sounds like a radar as her coat rippled with the tightening of her muscles.

She sniffed at the air, she could smell a human nearby. Quietly, she padded up to the nearest tree and peered around its trunk. A tall search-and-rescue officer was standing about thirty feet away, his bright orange vest making him stick out like a sore thumb in the dark of the forest. He swung his flashlight around when she put a paw down and snapped a trig under her weight. Aida shrank back, lowering herself to the ground and listening as he walked in her direction.

All she could hear was the rapid beat of her heart, the thrum of blood in her ears, and the pouring rain as it pelted against the thick leaves on the trees and the puddles that were quickly forming.

Aida heaved a sigh of relief when the officer turned around and left, heading deeper into the forest. She licked her lips nervously and closed her eyes, trying to picture all of the maps she had seen during her lifetime. The ravine was well known as a dangerous, hundred foot drop on the edge of the Faron Woods. It wasn't dangerous just because of the drop, though, it was also dangerous because it was one of the only places in Hyrule where monsters still lurked, and some of the most dangerous kinds stayed in the ravine.

The Undead.

Disgusting monsters, really. Rotting bodies of the dead re-animated by dark magic long ago in Hyrule's golden age to attack the living and feast on their flesh. If there was anything Aida hated more than herself, it was The Undead.

But she couldn't let that stop her, if she was going to go through with this, she had to toughen up. Being a coward wasn't going to cut it. Sensing which way was north, she used that as a guide on where to go, quickening her pace until she was sprinting, the trees blurring past her and rain pelting her, threatening to get in her eyes as she ran.

As she ran, a strange scent met her nose, forcing her to slow down. She looked around, holding her nose high in the air to try and identify the scent. When she did identify it, however, it wasn't a pleasant realization. Aida swung her head around, searching the dark landscape for the owner of the scent, her hackles raising as she planted her paws more firmly in the muddy ground.

A flash of motion caught her attention in the corner of her eye and with a loud snarl, Aida whirled around, fangs snapping at whatever had moved toward her. Her teeth met something hard and thin and rounded, and as she clamped her jaw shut, an inhuman screech filled her ears.

She quickly took-in what she was biting, and as her violet eyes darted over the creature's body, she felt like she was going to be sick. It was a good two feet taller than her, with beady, glowing green eyes, but that was all that was normal about the creature. Its body was made up of nothing more than bones, rotting brown flesh still clinging to its ribcage and haunches.

It was a Stalhound.

The Stalhound snarled at her, and Aida couldn't help but let go, staggering back a few feet and dodging as the larger beast swung a bony, clawed paw at her. She yelped when the claws connected to her cheek, leaving deep, bloody wounds in their wake. The Stalhound moved a few feet and sniffed at the air, and then let loose a long, baleful howl. A howl so loud and high-pitched that it threatened to draw blood from Aida's ears, and as she cowered on the ground, paws over her ears, she wondered why it was howling in the first place.

She gave a cry of her own as the ground beneath her erupted, sending mud and dirt flying in all directions and a frightened Aida fleeing as fast as her legs would take her. She sprinted into the forest, her muscles bunching and stretching as she threw her paws out as far as they could go and pulled hard, bending herself in half before repeating the process.

As she flew past the trees, she could smell several Stalhounds following her, could feel their hot, acrid breath on her neck, and glancing over her shoulder, could see that they weren't far behind. A savage cry sounded from one of them, and she howled in pain as one of them leapt at her, grabbing the back of her neck with long fangs and clinging to her with bony claws. Aida tumbled several feet with the Stalhound still biting into her flesh and wanted to scream when the other Stalhounds descended on her.

The Stalhounds yipped and squealed as they bit her neck and stomach and legs, staining her once tawny coat a sickly crimson. She writhed beneath the beasts, trying to break free from their fangs and mouths and claws, and with a sudden roar, she managed to throw the one on top of her off, staggering to her paws and delivering a mortal blow to the skeleton's body.

The Stalhound screeched before falling to the earth in a pile of bones. The others backed away from her for moment, leaving her to catch her breath. Her breath came in harsh, shuddering gasps, and looking down, she shivered at the sight of her blood as it trailed down her legs, mixing with the mud and making a strange puce-like color.

Taking a final, heavy breath, Aida made a break for it, pushing through the intense pain that shot through her every time she reached forward with her paws. The Stalhounds howled when she started to get away, and with the beasts' giving chase, she leapt through a thick line of underbrush, only to find that there was no ground to land on.

She had jumped straight into the ravine.

She was falling. Her body plummeted through the air, and she closed her eyes as the ground came quickly into view. She was going to die in a form she had never accepted, with a horde of Stalhounds falling after her…

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><p>Pain. Pain is just a sign that you're alive. That's what Aida's father had always said, that is, until he had died.<p>

She opened her eyes, the rims of her vision ebbed in black as she lifted her head and looked around at her surroundings. She was lying on the rocky floor of the ravine, cliffs that were far too steep to climb enclosed her, trapping her in the infernal place. Glancing to her sides she could see that the Stalhounds had not survived the fall, and all that was left of them was their bones, scattered across the ground.

It was somewhat surprising she herself had survived. But then she remembered another thing her father had taught her. Shifters had a unique ability to survive the most compromising of situations, which she assumed included falls, and another ability was a quickened healing process. Looking at her sides, she could see that the wounds that Stalhounds had inflicted were already healing.

But there was one thing that didn't look natural in the ravine. About one hundred feet away, the full moon's light glinting off of the blue painted metal was a truck, the front end completely smashed. The back end had had broken off in the crash.

It was Link's truck.

Whimpering as her muscles screamed in protest, she pushed up onto her paws, her legs trembling beneath her. Aida slowly made her way toward the truck, shivering as the smell of human blood assaulted her highly sensitive nose. The blood scent was mixed with an all to familiar one, it was mixed with Link's scent.

She limped over to the truck, the blood smell getting stronger, and she knew what she would find. With a cry of pain, she rose up onto her hind legs and pushed down on the truck's door handle, using the last of her strength to open the truck door.

Aida was thrown backward when the door opened, and rolling across the hard, rocky ground, she began to wonder what had possessed her to do this. The question once again came to mind: Why was she here? Link didn't love her, he didn't even care, and yet, even after he had broken her fragile heart, she still persisted to try in vain to save his life. She knew he was dead, there was no way a human could survive the fall, she herself had been lucky.

His body was still strapped in by the seatbelt, in the driver's seat of the truck. His head lolled forward, eyes shut and blood dripping from a cut on his forehead. For some stupid reason, the airbag had not deployed, and instead, the steering wheel threatened to crush his chest.

Not knowing why, Aida felt her instincts kick in, and she couldn't resist what her body was telling her to do. She limped over to the truck again, and with a snap of her jaw, bit through the seatbelt, releasing him from the tight strap. She gripped the collar of his shirt in her teeth and pulled, dragging his limp form onto the gravel. Strangely, other than the cut on his forehead and a few other small scrapes, he seemed unscathed.

_Strange._ She thought, pushing his shaggy golden hair from in front of his eyes. She couldn't resist herself as he violet eyes stared, unblinkingly, at the cut, and with a soft whine, she reached forward and licked the wound. She cleaned it of the blood and when she found a piece of glass still lodged there, gently pulled it out with her teeth. That was when she noticed it, a soft, rhythmic pulse in the blood, a familiar warmth coming off of his skin despite the still pouring rain. He was alive.

By some miraculous force, he had survived the crash, and if she could have blushed, her cheeks would have been red as a potion when he weakly opened his eyes, a casual smile on his lips.

"You can continue." He said, his voice full of sarcasm. Aida staggered back a few feet, and she could feel her hackles rise up on the back of her neck, her muzzle scrunching up and a low, rumbling warning came from deep inside her throat. She stopped abruptly when Link chuckled, and raised her head, eyes wide in confusion.

She watched as Link slowly dragged himself into a sitting position, groaning as he did. Aida stayed stalk still, her fur laying flat against her and dripping with a mixture of rainwater and blood from the wounds that were taking longer to heal.

He stared at her as she reluctantly lowered her haunches onto the ground, sitting down tiredly with her tongue lolling gently from one side of her muzzle. She blinked back at him, and recoiled when he spoke again.

"Aida?" He asked, looking into her eyes. Aida jumped to her paws, backing further away and glancing over her shoulder, wondering if she should run away.

"Aida, I know that's you."

She stopped, and growled again, trying to deflect him. He paid her no attention, and instead held out a hand, confusing her even more. How did he know it was her? She could be any shifter in Hyrule for all he knew, and yet he knew it was her?

Before he could speak again, an inhuman roar rumbled across the ravine. Aida yelped and frantically turned around in a circle, eyes searching for the source of the sound. Link uttered a small, quiet groan and stood up, looking over the top of his destroyed truck.

Something wasn't right, Aida could feel it. Their was a great evil aura coming from just out of her sight, somewhere deep in the shadows.

Link gasped, and Aida lowered her head, bearing her fangs as a horde of tall, skeletal warriors moved out of the shadows. They looked like warriors from times gone by, bearing rusty swords and shields and heavy armor resting on their collarbones and knees and heads. There were hundreds of them, storming out of the ravine and charging toward them, bones creaking and metal armor clanking against them.

Where their eyes should have been, empty eye sockets remained, glowing an evil red. But that wasn't what made Link yelp and Aida snarl a warning. Out of the darkness came two more glowing red eyes, and Aida stopped abruptly as the monster came out of the shadows.

It was huge. A gigantic skeletal monster, enormous head reaching the top of the tall cliff walls, stomped toward them. Brown, rotting flesh still clung to some of its bones, and from the middle of it's forehead a large black sword jutted out, obviously what had originally killed the beast.

With a single shuddering step, the beast crushed what remained of Link's truck and sent several of it's own comrades scattering across the ground, bones flying and metal crunching underneath its weight.

"You've got to be kidding me!" Link cried, turning and dashing away from the giant monster. Aida followed suit, quickly catching up with him and sprinting away from the huge monster. She knew what the monster was, an entire chapter in her Hyrulean History book had been dedicated to it.

It was Stallord, a demonic creature that had once been contained in the Arbiter's Grounds. It had apperently been dumped in the ravine since then, and now it was very angry that they were trespassing. Aida shook her head as she ran. Life just wasn't fair…

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><p><strong>AN: Well, there you go, only one more part to go. So many questions, why did Link survive the fall? Why is Stallord in the ravine? Oh dear, you'll just have to wait for the third and final part! **

**Shout out to Link'sLily, who is an AMAZING writer and friend, check out her stories, and she's a great artist too! Follow her on DeviantART!**


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